Volume 5 Issue 6 (November - December), 2019

Original Articles

EVALUATION OF PREVALENCE OF DENTAL CARIES AMONG SCHOOL GOING CHILDREN-AN EPIDEMIOLOGICAL STUDY
Maria Manhas

Background: The caries experience varies greatly among countries and even within small regions of countries. It varies with age, and sex, socioeconomic conditions, ethnicity, diet, medical conditions of the patient, oral hygiene practices, etc. Hence; the present study was undertaken for assessing the prevalence of dental caries among school going children. Materials & Methods: A total of 550 school going children were screened in the present study. Complete demographic details of all the children were obtained. After meeting the inclusion criteria, oral examination of all the subjects was done. A mouth mirror, probe and explorer were used for screening the children. A master chart was prepared and incidence of dental caries was recorded and was correlated with and gender. Kuppuswamy was used for assessing the socio-economic status of the children. All the results were recorded in Microsoft excel sheet and were analysed by SPSS software. Results: In the present study, dental carried was found to be present in 192 children. However; it was found to be absent in 358 children. Significantly higher prevalence of dental caries among children with increasing age was seen. While assessing the incidence of dental caries among school going children on the basis of gender, non-significant results were obtained. However; while assessing the incidence of dental caries with socio-economic status, significant results were obtained. Conclusion: Dental caries is significantly prevalent among school going children especially among children of upper socio-economic status. Key words: Dental caries, Children, School

 
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